Masters 2017: Jordan Spieth opens up about disaster at Augusta's No. 12

It has been a year, and the No. 6 golfer in the world is still fielding questions

You knew Jordan Spieth would get question after question about the quadruple bogey he made at No. 12 last year to ruin his chance of winning the 2016 Masters. You just didn’t know that they would come every week at every tournament and in every way imaginable. 

That is what has happened, though, and Spieth has handled every one of them with the aplomb of a 20-year veteran even though this is just his fourth Masters. He was asked again Tuesday at Augusta National. To be fair, this is the story for some in 2017: How will Spieth fare when he returns to No. 12?

“I played the hole tremendously well [historically],” Spieth said Tuesday. “If you look at my history there, I made quite a few birdies. Hit the green the majority of the time and I’ve been fortunate that I played it in pretty good conditions. That hole can be quite a challenge in the first two rounds.”

But not during practice rounds where Spieth made an easy birdie Tuesday.

“I tapped it in Arnie style,” Spieth said. “It was about that far [indicating a foot] I turned to the crowd and said, ‘I really could have used that one about 12 months ago’ to some significant laughter.”

As for how deep it is buried into his psyche, nobody truly knows (or will ever know), but Spieth at least sounds like he has moved so far beyond the meltdown that he has to reach back to remember it.

“You add them up after 72,” Spieth said. “It’s a short hole where you have a better opportunity of making a three there than you do on the next hole or the hole before. Stay focused on the hole as it is. These conditions could make it easier to stay focused on the hole, having to judge certain winds and whatnot. Look forward to getting out there, taking it right over the bunker just like I can tell you my strategy for any other hole.”

As for how he’s dealt with blowing a Masters in private, Spieth said he’s open about it.

“I think it’s therapeutic to an extent if I talk about it, but I don’t think on this stage,” Spieth said. “You know, I’ve been pretty honest and I’ve answered every question and there’s nothing I haven’t. I feel like I’ve been right to y’all in that sense, and no one’s told me otherwise. But I think certainly therapeutic. Like anything, you go through up and downs in life, go through ups and downs in life and in golf. 

“You want to be therapeutic on both ends, and there have been people that I have talked to that I truly trust about 15, as well as 16 and 14. And I believe that certainly you don’t want to hold stuff in. I would be crazy.”

“I also have to hold back a lot here because of how things can be, and that’s no offense to you guys whatsoever. It’s just strictly the nature of what I think is appropriate in moving on and lifting up when you’re on a low, staying up when you’re high and that’s what you’re looking for in those therapeutic experiences.”

Time will tell how much the 2016 Masters changed Spieth, but his mental game is his strongest asset. He also has a spare green jacket to remind him that, at 23, he has already accomplished so much. 

But no matter what words he says or how he says them, the real arbiter of the situation, as it always is with golf, will be the hole itself. Come Thursday (and Friday and beyond), we will know more about how No. 12 has affected Spieth.

My guess? Not all that much.